For Amish farmer, life's about peaches

When you buy a peach from Daniel Graber, it’ll be the best peach of your life, he said.

“If you bite into that peach right now, it’ll be running down your face,” Graber said.

If you don’t bite it right now, he’ll call after you.

“Report back on that peach,” he said.

Peaches — and cherries and apples and peppers and dairy — are Daniel Graber’s everything. An Amish farmer from Odon, Ind., Graber owns Graber’s Produce, one of the many businesses appearing at Bloomington’s lesser-known farmer’s market on Tuesdays at the corner of 6th and Madison streets.

The fruits and vegetables he sells come to Bloomington twice a week from the 100-acre farm Graber purchased in 1996 with his wife, Fannie Mae.

Since the start of peach season in June, the Grabers have woken at 4:30 a.m. and worked until 8 or 9 p.m. each day, picking, sorting, canning and cooking peaches.

“It’s not eight-hour days and punching the time card,” Graber said. “But it’s the only life we know.”

It’s also the kind of work that makes Graber proud to be Amish. He said he often feels sorry for those who don’t have the chance to learn the lessons his eight children have learned, such as where food comes from.

“There’s a saying that goes ‘Grandpa had a farm, Junior had a garden and Sunny has a can opener,’” Graber said. “That’s the way it is in America today.”

But he knows his way of life is misunderstood by many.

As market browsers passed by Graber’s stand, his straw hat, scraggly beard and long pants drew a few stares. A woman joked with his daughter, Lydia, about going off to school soon.

But at 14, Lydia’s already completed all eight years of education standard in the Amish community.

So in September, Graber is opening his farm up to the public through the Homegrown Indiana Farm Tour. The trip departs from downtown and takes visitors to Graber’s Produce and the Rabers Family Farm, which is owned by Graber’s brother-in-law.

Participants will have the chance to ride on a horse-drawn wagon, watch cows be milked and, of course, learn what it takes to grow “the best peaches of your life.”

Follow reporter Jessica Contrera on Twitter @mjcontrera.